Hi all, this is for those getting their CFII rating.
I took my check in St. George, Utah in my personal 1974 172M. It is, of course, a "round dial" airplane. The oral was about an hour long after we got all the iacra stuff done. We talked at length about the magnetic compass and how to correlate that into a lesson. I talked about variation, deviation, compass errors and timed turns. I also touched on AHRS and other advanced compass systems that are in TAA aircraft. He seemed to like my answer and that I was conversant with more advanced aircraft than my old clunker.
Unfortunately, the closest ILS is about 50 miles away in Cedar City, Utah so we had to fly up there to do approaches. I taught VOR navigation and attitude instrument flying on the way up. He didn't ask me to teach any one thing, I just treated him like a student and taught what we were experiencing. The examiner flew the airplane up to Cedar City. He did a nice job and didn't intentionally "goof up" anything. He had me fly an ILS with a complete procedure turn under the hood while I taught. The airport has a compass locator so I incorporated some ADF/NDB training into the ILS procedure....just explaining what a valuable situational awareness tool a compass locator can be.
I did a missed approach at DA and executed his amended missed approach instructions. He gave me vectors back for a ILS G/S inoperative approach to the same runway with a simulated vacuum failure. I was still under the hood and basically flew the approach and explained what I was doing. He was happy with that and he asked to fly the airplane back to St. George. We basically just talked about GA and some of his funny examiner stories on the way home. Ironically, he taught ground school on the MD-80 and I am a current check airman on the MD-80 so we had a lot of common things to talk about.
Upon arrival at St. George he gave me the airplane under the hood again. He had me fly a very challenging category A only VOR approach into the airport. We crossed the VOR outbound and had to complete the procedure turn within 5NM so it was quite challenging. Being slow and configured with everything done early is the key to success here. Also, there are some significant changes to procedure turns in the 2010 AIM (section 5-4-9) so I taught those while inbound to the VOR before the approach. He let me take the hood off at MDA and we landed, keeping the airplane in the TERPS allowed 1.3 miles from the airport for our category A approach.
I felt it was a very fair and straight-forward ride. The examiner was the most gracious I've ever flown with. It was actually a fun experience. As sick as it sounds, I enjoyed the journey more than I enjoy having the rating in my pocket! It will allow me to teach my 17 year-old and 14 year-old instrument flying so I am indeed glad to have it.
Sorry to be so long winded but I hope this helps some of you headed for the CFII ride. Good luck and happy landings!
Chris Boice
I took my check in St. George, Utah in my personal 1974 172M. It is, of course, a "round dial" airplane. The oral was about an hour long after we got all the iacra stuff done. We talked at length about the magnetic compass and how to correlate that into a lesson. I talked about variation, deviation, compass errors and timed turns. I also touched on AHRS and other advanced compass systems that are in TAA aircraft. He seemed to like my answer and that I was conversant with more advanced aircraft than my old clunker.
Unfortunately, the closest ILS is about 50 miles away in Cedar City, Utah so we had to fly up there to do approaches. I taught VOR navigation and attitude instrument flying on the way up. He didn't ask me to teach any one thing, I just treated him like a student and taught what we were experiencing. The examiner flew the airplane up to Cedar City. He did a nice job and didn't intentionally "goof up" anything. He had me fly an ILS with a complete procedure turn under the hood while I taught. The airport has a compass locator so I incorporated some ADF/NDB training into the ILS procedure....just explaining what a valuable situational awareness tool a compass locator can be.
I did a missed approach at DA and executed his amended missed approach instructions. He gave me vectors back for a ILS G/S inoperative approach to the same runway with a simulated vacuum failure. I was still under the hood and basically flew the approach and explained what I was doing. He was happy with that and he asked to fly the airplane back to St. George. We basically just talked about GA and some of his funny examiner stories on the way home. Ironically, he taught ground school on the MD-80 and I am a current check airman on the MD-80 so we had a lot of common things to talk about.
Upon arrival at St. George he gave me the airplane under the hood again. He had me fly a very challenging category A only VOR approach into the airport. We crossed the VOR outbound and had to complete the procedure turn within 5NM so it was quite challenging. Being slow and configured with everything done early is the key to success here. Also, there are some significant changes to procedure turns in the 2010 AIM (section 5-4-9) so I taught those while inbound to the VOR before the approach. He let me take the hood off at MDA and we landed, keeping the airplane in the TERPS allowed 1.3 miles from the airport for our category A approach.
I felt it was a very fair and straight-forward ride. The examiner was the most gracious I've ever flown with. It was actually a fun experience. As sick as it sounds, I enjoyed the journey more than I enjoy having the rating in my pocket! It will allow me to teach my 17 year-old and 14 year-old instrument flying so I am indeed glad to have it.
Sorry to be so long winded but I hope this helps some of you headed for the CFII ride. Good luck and happy landings!
Chris Boice
